Around a month ago, the Library of Congress announced new curatorial strategies for interactive storytelling around its diverse collections with its Story Maps. The stories offer users engaging ways to access these collections and leverage data using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and a new story platform created by ESRI a corporate leader in the areas of […]

I’ve been exploring the new PuppetMaster app and I am enchanted. I see serious potential for this free, intuitive, open-ended tool to encourage creativity across a wide range of ages, from pre-school to adult! PuppetMaster allows children to animate anything and to record their action and sound to create movies. It encourages the creation of visual art in any medium and […]

More and more we communicate through video. And I’ll bet you know the feeling when you record that very effective screencast or tutorial, and it just doesn’t feel ready for primetime. Post-production is what makes your media feel professional and done. But not everyone has access to, or the chops to use, a robust video […]

Amidst a fury of #FlipGridFever, our friends at Flipgrid recently announced major enhancements in a product I loved at first sight. (See just a couple of my posts from Let’s test drive FlipGrid to Announcing Flipgrid One (now free to all teachers). One thing you’ll notice if you go back and watch the live-streamed launch event that […]

A couple of years back I was thrilled to discover Plotagon and posted about it here. Today, I was thrilled to discover that free one-year teacher licenses are now available at Plotagon Education. (Currently, students may sign up for 30-day trials.) Reminiscent of Xtranormal, Plotagon encourages writing skills as users craft professional-looking animated movies. Plotagon movies […]

Looking for a simple (and free) explainer video creator? One of my recent discoveries is MySimpleShow. Write a script or upload a little PowerPoint (up to 20 slides) and tell your story cut-out, explainer style. This is an effective tool for writing across the curriculum as well as creating instruction. MySimpleShow offers writers a range […]

Check out Toontastic 3D, a wonderful, free, open-ended digital storytelling app just launched by Google Education for tablet, phone and Chromebook. You may be familiar with Toontastic launched in 2011 or Toontastic Jr. Now, with the help of Google, the platform is impressively redesigned for Android, iPad and iPhone. The new app allows students to […]

Today, one of my favorite communication/creativity platforms shared some major enhancements and re-declared its commitment to equity. (See below for the big news!) I have been a devoted fan of Flipgrid since the beginning. For me it’s one of those few wifi desert island must-packs. Created by LT Media Lab at the University of Minnesota, […]

Here’s a winner to add to your mobile storytelling toolkit! Available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, Seedling Comic Studio is a low-learning curve, free tool for comic/graphic story creation. Make one-frame or an entire multi-page book combining photographs from your camera or camera roll, cut-outs, speech bubbles, free-form text, filters, backgrounds and stickers. The […]

About NeverEnding Search

News, thoughts, and discoveries at the vortex of libraries, literacy, learning, discovery and play. Joyce is an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University's School of Communication and Information, an edtech Sherpa, and a connector. Her interests include: social media curation, digital/media fluency, transliteracy and youth, online communities of practice, digital storytelling and creativity, youth information-seeking behavior, social networking, online learning, and the evolving role and powers of the teacher-librarian.